


The Tegenbalansie Chronometer

by Annariel



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen, Heist, Murder Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 07:31:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16739734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel
Summary: The Seventh Doctor and Ace are planning a heist.  Meanwhile the Twelfth Doctor and Bill have a murder to solve.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JustMcShane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustMcShane/gifts).



"This is one of the earliest prototypes of a null field generator. You will notice the crude functionality. It is important to remember that the early stablists were essentially an underground organisation working with limited resources. That they nevertheless developed the technology that has become so fundamental to our way of life is extraordinary."

Bill peered through the the glass of the display case at the ugly gun-metal grey cube squatting inside.

"How does it work?" she asked the Doctor as she stood up. She had a feeling that, for everyone else on the tour, the theories of planetary stability and null fields were the stuff of primary school lessons.

"Well the Five Worlds had been at war for centuries and their technology had reached a point where they were essentially throwing space rocks at each other."

The Doctor mimed an asteroid falling to a planet with his hands.

"I got that bit. If you remember the whole reason we're here is to enliven the topic of gravitics. I'm not much impressed by the way, if its main use it to throw rocks at your neighbours. Wouldn't we be better off not knowing about it?"

The Doctor cocked his head as if considering his answer. "I've found, in the long run, that ignorance rarely pays. Technological advance is difficult and dangerous to suppress."

"Fair enough. So how does this null field generator work?"

"As we move into the next hall," their guide said slightly more loudly than necessary, "we will be able to view the development of the technology from these early prototypes through to the planet-wide field generators in use today."

The Doctor waggled his eyebrows. "Explanations will have to wait until we get back I think."

Bill shared a grin with him, as the guide scowled pointedly in their direction and they moved through into the next room.

A sequence of machines lined the walls, each bigger than the last. There was a kind of family resemblance between each machine and Bill was prepared to believe that she was looking at a technology that was becoming both bigger and more sophisticated. In the centre of the room stood a square of red curtain.

"What's that?" Bill couldn't help asking the guide.

"That's the so-called Tegenbalansie Chronometer. It is the centrepiece of a new exhibition opening tomorrow."

"Weren't the Tegenbalansie a break away group of stabilists?" asked one of the other visitors. "Something to do with stability only for Aartje?"

"Indeed. In later years, as null field generator usage began to spread, their research took a sinister but fortunately entirely unworkable, direction. However they had funding from some of the wealthiest Aartjeans and their workmanship was impeccable. The Chronometer was supposed to count down to final victory for Aartje. If you should come to the exhibition, once it opens, all this will be set out for you. We have been privileged to borrow a number of superb artifacts from the early days of Stability from the heir of Geldmensen. The Geldmensen of the time were among the main funders of the Tegenbalansie movement."

Bill pulled a face and glanced at the Doctor. No doubt the exhibition would be of great interest to the locals, but it didn't sound like it had much to do with gravitics. The Doctor was frowning in an abstracted fashion.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Nothing, I hope. It's just I've run across the Tegenbalansie Chronometer before or, more probably, after."

"Getting crossed over with yourself? We should take a peek," Bill suggested edging over to the draped curtain.

"I know what it looks like."

"Well I don't!"

Bill surreptitiously tweaked the curtain. Behind it something wobbled, as if knocked, and then began to fall. Bill stepped back hurriedly as the whatever it was toppled over. The curtain swung back and a dead woman lay at her feet.

Several people screamed. The tour guide fainted.

* * *

The Doctor presented a gold chip with an embossed crest on it. The doorman dropped the chip into a scanner and frowned at the readings that flashed past. Then he nodded to himself and looked up at the Doctor and Ace.

"You're clear to go."

The Doctor doffed his hat and they entered. The room beyond was dimly lit with curtains framing the walls. Groups of people stood around small tables, sipping at drinks. There was a bar at one end of the room and a raised area, empty except for a free-standing microphone at the other. Conversation was muted.

Ace hunched her shoulders. She wasn't yet certain about what was going on, but one glance around the room told her this was no fancy party. She straightened her jacket and opted to scowl at anyone who glanced their way.

"Don't look so unfriendly," the Doctor chided.

"I'm trying to look like the hired muscle. Everyone else around here has one."

The Doctor looked around room as if he was assessing the company for the first time. "You may have a point," he agreed.

"So what's going on?"

"I wish I knew."

"Come on Doctor, don't make me guess."

"It's the complete truth Ace. For once, I've no idea what is happening."

"But you had a fancy invite token."

"I got sent it, plus a few other things, suggesting it might be worth my while attending this event."

Ace looked around the room once more. Everyone was dressed smartly, or at least gave the impression of having made the effort. The results were varied. About half the people there were big and burly and, either accidentally or deliberately, managed to look as though they were barely fitting into their suits. There were a lot of visible scars and crooked noses. Each small group eyed the others up warily.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!"

A light came on. A man had entered the stage and stood before the microphone. He wore a silver suit and his hair had been styled into an immobile quiff. He smiled ingratiatingly at the surly crowd.

"Welcome to the fifth annual Five Planets heist competition."

Ace risked a sideways glance at the Doctor. His fingers were tapping on the handle of his umbrella.

"The competition this year is to steal the Tegenbalansie Chronometer."

An image of a complicated device flashed up in a hologram behind the speaker.

"This historic device has been kept in the vaults of the Geldmensen family for centuries with access allowed only to a privileged few scholars. However a unique opportunity has arisen. The Chronometer is to be displayed in an exhibit at the Aartje People's Museum and so this year the theft of the Tegenbalansie Chronometer and its delivery to our client will determine the winner of the competition."

As the man began to outline the details of competition, Ace let her gaze wander over the assembled crowd once more. In the shadows at the back of the stage, she noticed a lone man. He had slicked back dark hair and a monocle in one eye. He was dressed in a suit, but it seemed to fit him subtly better than those of most of the audience. He was watching the compère intently. Ace nudged the Doctor and then nodded in his direction.

"I suspect that is the client," the Doctor said. "Now I wonder what he wants this Tegenbalansie Chronometer for?"

"You will find full details on the info-chips being handed out. You have forty eight hours to complete the heist. Goodbye and good luck!"

The host bowed with a flourish. The lights went out briefly. When they came back up the dais was empty and both the host and man at the side of the stage had gone. The waiters now circulated with trays piled with small black plastic squares. Ace snagged one as a waiter went past and examined it. It clearly contained electronic information of some kind, but she was going to need a reader to access it. She showed it to the Doctor who rifled through his pockets. Most of the audience were moving towards the exits, but Ace could see that one or two had discreet handheld devices which they had slotted their info chips into and which had called up holograhic displays.

"Ah ha!" The Doctor produced something bright red, with trailing wires and some kind of rotating disk at the top. Ace handed over the info-chip and watched as he plugged it in and then squinted at a tiny screen.

"I know your reputation Algor, no way would I team up with you. I wouldn't last five minutes after I'd ceased to be useful."

Ace glanced around. Up until that moment, all conversation had been quiet and muted, but that statement was designed to be heard. A man and woman stood behind her both holding onto a reader. It looked like the woman, who had spoken, was trying to take it back from the man. The man was tall, but well-muscled with a scar trailing down one side of his face. She was less well-built, willowy rather than well-muscled, in a well-tailored suit and high heels.

"Don't push me Irna. You have useful inside knowledge, but you're going to need more than that for this job," the man's reply was a low rumble and Ace had to strain to hear it.

Irna pulled the reader forcefully back from him, laughed and tossed her head, making her earrings jangle, before walking away. On a hunch Ace caught up with her as she passed.

"What was that about?" she asked.

"Algor? You've heard of him surely?"

"I'm new to this game," Ace jerked her head in the Doctor's direction. "He's the expert."

"Well don't go near Algor. He's got a string of dead partners to his name, and no one believes that all of them were accidents."

"So why did he think you'd partner up with him?" 

Irna grimaced. "I always worked with Soen Kuns. He retired last year. I'm still hoping I can get him interested in this. It's a big prize."

The Doctor glanced up. "I've heard of Soen. I thought he wanted out."

"He did. He does. He's got himself nicely set up somewhere quiet. Even I'm not sure where. He sounds happy." Irna looked a little wistful.

"What did Algor mean about inside knowledge?" Ace asked.

Irna looked cautious and then thoughtful. "I used to work security at the museum that is exhibiting the Tegenbalansie Chronometer. I could tell you more if you made it worth my while."

"Was Algor right that you'll need a team?"

The Doctor dropped his reader into his coat pocket. "We may be able to work together."

"Have we got a plan Professor?"

"We have the start of a plan, but there are some gaps. Mev?"

"Hoek, Irna Hoek"

"Mev. Hoek, can I suggest we retire somewhere a little less public and compare notes."

* * *

Bill hovered on the edge of the investigation as Detective Broumen manfully (womanfully?) attempted to wrest control of the situation back from the Doctor, who had flashed his psychic paper and started demanding answers even as the Detective was attempting to take his statement.

The dead woman, Bill had learned, was Mev. Meernan, the museum's senior curator. She appeared to have been killed with one sharp blow of a heavy object to her temple and then concealed, slumped, behind the curtains next to the Tegenbalansie Chronometer.

The Doctor paced around the Chronometer. He was worried about something.

"Could the murder have had anything to do with this?" Bill asked, gesturing at the exhibit.

It was very elaborate. It looked to be some kind of clockwork device, made from different colours of metal. Gemstones were set into it and numbers and swirls were etched onto the metal surface.

"It's possible," the Detective said. "I understand it was quite a coup, getting the Geldmensen to agree to the exhibition. Something about strict family tradition or some such."

She gestured to one of the security guards who had been the first on the scene after the screaming and fainting started. "What's the security on this thing?" she asked.

The guard pointed at several light sources placed strategically around the room. "Light cage. If one of the beams is broken then steel shutters come down all round the room."

"But presumably the light cage can be switched off somewhere?" Bill said.

"Double thumb print system. The Senior Curator and the Museum Director both need to authorise switch off."

Bill glanced down at the body. "Could someone have taken her thumb print?"

"It's a possibility," the Detective agreed. "Where is the Director? I asked for them to come here?"

"There's also an image processing system to detect movement out of hours, connected to the cameras." The Doctor waved at several cameras dotted around the room. "They're on a separate circuit that is isolated from outside and designed to trigger an alarm if deactivated." 

"You seem to know a lot about their security measures," the Detective said.

The Doctor waved aside their concern. "It's my business to know things."

"I'm most terribly sorry! I was delayed dealing with our volunteer guide. He was most upset at this terrible business!"

A small grey-haired woman bustled into the room. A group of others trailed after her all wearing name tags and ID cards of various descriptions.

"Mev. Straakje, Museum Director, at your service."

She gripped Detective Broumen's hand in a quick short shake. Then glanced at the Doctor and Bill with a slight frown.

"This is the Doctor and his student Mev. Potts," said the Detective. "They're from the Ministry of Art and Cultural Studies, Art Crimes Investigation Service."

"Excellent!" the director beamed at them. "It's reassuring to know Aartje's finest minds are on the case."

Bill wasn't certain whether or not the woman was being sarcastic, but she smiled politely anyway. "We always try to be prepared," she said.

The Director nodded. "Now what can I tell you?"

"Let's start with Mev. Meernan's movements. Your security guards last saw her about mid-afternoon yesterday when she double-checked arrangements for the grand opening tomorrow."

"Let me see. I had a meeting with her yesterday morning to go over the details, but I don't recall seeing her after that. Does anyone know if she left the museum?"

"Unlikely," said the Doctor suddenly from where he was crouched by the body. "I think she's been dead nearly a day."

"The pathologist will need to check that," Detective Broumen countered.

The Doctor shrugged.

"I can give you access to her calendar. One moment!" The Museum Director gestured in the air with a small black unit. Bill had already come to recognise these, called datjes, as the local equivalent of a smart phone. A holographic screen popped up that displayed an electronic calendar. A few deft flicks of the wrist isolated it down to Mev. Meernan. Bill looked at the chunks of time set out on the screen. It was full of meetings about aspects of the grand opening, up until the early afternoon at which point the time was blocked out until late in the evening for `set up'.

"It looks like she intended to be here until late."

The Director nodded. "She was a perfectionist. She will have wanted to check everything was in order."

"And yet the security guards didn't see her when they closed the museum," the Doctor muttered.

"I suppose it would be too much to hope they checked behind the curtains for the Chronometer," said the Detective. She made a note, "I'll check on that."

"Has there been any trouble lately? Anything to do with the Chronometer?" Bill asked.

"Well there's always a certain amount of craziness when you have an exhibition related to null field technology. Lots of doomsday cults and so forth."

"Doomsday cults?" Bill asked.

"The null fields negate most of the gravitational forces that allowed the Five Planets to move space rocks around. However they have to be quite carefully calibrated."

"Otherwise no gravity, right? Or planets fall out of orbit? I can get the picture." Bill did indeed get the picture even if she didn't yet fully grasp the technology. "So the Tegenbalansie Chronometer has something to do with null field technology?"

"Not really. There have always been crackpot theories of course, but nothing anyone should take seriously," the Museum Director shook her head.

"Anything recent?" The Doctor asked.

"I don't think so. The most recent theory I recall was Roeharten about ten years ago. Hmm..." the Museum Director frowned at the calendar in front of her. "Looks like Mev. Meernan had a meeting with the New Balance Organisation two weeks ago. That might mean something."

"What's the New Balance Organisation?" Bill asked.

"Another bunch of crackpots mostly, though they've been getting a lot of Press recently. I'm surprised you've not noticed them. It's Mev. Ijkstron's lot. You know, Aartje was on the brink of winning the solar system war and null field technology should not have been deployed until after victory was achieved. They were originally an off-shoot of the Tegenbalansie. We're talking a couple of centuries ago here. Anyway New Balance is a mixture of conspiracy theorists and second rate wannabe politicians like Mev. Ijkstron."

"Any idea what the meeting was about?" Detective Broumen asked.

The Director shook her head. "No, but Sesia, Mev. Meernan, may have taken notes. Let's see..."

The Director started flicking through more holographic screens.

* * *

Ace looked down at the pair of legs sticking out from under the computer bank. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

There was a bang, as someone tried to sit up and then a curse. A moment later a ruffled looking young man appeared from under the console?

"Marcarti Systems Security. What are you doing here?"

Ace peered over the glasses she was wearing for disguise. "I'm one of the curatorial staff. Third epoch graphic design. You've still not explained why you're here."

"You've heard of the fancy new exhibition right? High security centrepiece?"

"The Tegenbalansie Chronometer, yeah. It would be difficult not to have heard about it."

"Well the security had a dual thumb print authentication system and one of the thumb print owners has just been murdered, or so I hear, which presents a bit of a problem."

"No one can switch off the security? How's that a problem."

"Well someone is going to have to switch it off eventually, in order to return the thing. And you want an override in place anyway in case of emergency so, that's why I'm here. My job is to reset the system which," he scooted back underneath the console, "I've just managed to do."

He scooted out again and sat up, brushing himself down somewhat ineffectually in order to get rid of the dust and grime from the server room floor.

"So what now? Do you have to go and pick two new thumb prints?"

"Something like that." He scrambled to his feet and packed miscellaneous electronics into his bag. "I'm seeing the Museum Director next. We'll double check her thumb print on this and then collect another from her nominated second." He tucked a device into his pocket, that looked a bit like a bulkier form of the datjes everyone local seemed to have.

Ace followed him to the door. He waved his ID in front of the sensor and the door made the unmistakable sound of a lock clicking open. He stepped out into the corridor and then lurched out of Ace's vision as if pulled. Ace found herself staring down the barrel of a gun held by none other than Irna's nemesis, Algor. The unfortunate technician lay unconscious at his feet.


	2. Chapter Two

Ace took a careful step back into the server room. Algor was wearing a Marcarti uniform. His plan must be to impersonate the technician and so collect substitute fingerprints. Ace's plan, on the other hand, had been to place a small signal interceptor that belonged to Irna into the technician's control unit and intercept the unlock signal that way.

Algor's plan, Ace's mind reasoned quickly, was not going to want to leave witnesses. As she stepped back, she grabbed the edge of the door and swung it shut hearing the automatic lock click into place. The bullet that followed it ricocheted past her shoulder. She instantly waved the fake ID Irna had given her over the control next to the door and swung it open again. Luck was on her side, Algor's hand was on the handle and he staggered as the door moved forward. She kneed him quickly in the groin and grabbed the gun as he fell to the floor. She stepped smartly over him, left the room and shut the door again. The lock clicked back into place.

Ace paused to take a deep breath. Everything had not gone quite according to plan, but so far no one had been killed.

She fished for the control unit in the unconscious technician's pocket, pried off the casing and inserted Irna's gizmo inside before snapping it shut and returning it to the man's pocket.

Someone started hammering on the door to the computer room.

Ace took off at a run, scooting around three corners and down a staircase, before exiting out of the bottom floor and into a back alley behind the museum. As she left an alarm began to sound. The Doctor was waiting for her in the alley with Irna.

"Well?" asked the Doctor.

"I managed to stick your bug thingy into his thumb print collector. Hope it's working. But we ran into Algor. He was also after it."

Irna nodded. "Marcarti's recovery process is pretty well known. I don't suppose we're the only people trying to bug the thing."

"Did you get spotted by anyone?" The Doctor asked.

"Only the technician, given the hullabaloo there'll be once he comes around, I imagine he'll ask after me and then they'll realise they don't have a curator of third epoch graphic design."

"We'll just have to hope no one will recognise you without your cunning disguise."

* * *

"I could get used to this," Bill commented sipping at her champagne. The Tardis had rustled up a stunning floor length red dress for her and she frankly felt like the belle of the ball. She eyed the assembled dignitaries at the grand opening of the Tegenbalansie Exhibition trying to figure out who was who.

Mev. Ijkstron, head of the New Balance Organisation had already been pointed out to her. A tall thin man who affected a monocle. Sesia Meernan's notes had suggested her meeting with him had been all about arrangements for the grand opening. Apparently the New Balance Organisation were planning a Press conference in two days' time and wanted to use the exhibition as a backdrop. In fact it appeared that the New Balance Organisation had made a substantial donation to the museum that had allowed the exhibition to take place in the first place. The Museum Director had seemed surprised, and more than a little annoyed about the whole thing. Detective Broumen was off checking into the details of Mev. Meernan's finances.

As well as the dodgy politician with the monocle, several members of the Press were present, plus a smattering of academics, artists, museum patrons and minor local dignitaries. However there were also a few `mystery' guests. Detective Broumen was attempting to trace their names from the guest list and see who they were. She'd pointed a couple out to Bill who had had to agree that they didn't necessarily look like your usual museum crowd types, though she couldn't have said exactly what she thought made someone look like a member of the museum crowd.

Detective Broumen was, Bill suspected, enjoying herself ever so slightly. The abortive attack on a security technician earlier had firmed up the suspicion that the curator's death was connected to a proposed theft of the Chronometer. Unfortunately the culprit had escaped when an unsuspecting member of Museum Security had opened the server room door to check for clues.

The Museum Director stood fidgeting on her right. "I'm still not sure about this. It seems disrespectful."

"Assuming your murderer is interested in the exhibit, the grand opening is an obvious opportunity to see who might be a suspect," the Doctor said.

The Museum Director sighed. "I can't say I ever liked Mev. Meernan much. Too much ambition coupled with some rather narrow thinking and I really don't understand what was going on with the New Balance. That could prove very embarrassing for us. I hope that didn't influence my decision to let this carry on."

"Might the motive have nothing to do with the Tegenbalansie Chronometer. I mean if she wasn't popular?" Bill asked.

"Who knows," the Doctor looked gloomily around the room and then his face broke open into a wide smile.

Bill followed his gaze to see a young white woman with long brown hair, weaving her way through the crowd. She was wearing a suit, rather than the dresses most of the women had favoured and appeared to have a number of small brightly coloured sequins sewn at random places into the fabric.

"Who's that?" she asked.

"Why don't you go find out?"

Bill gave the Doctor a glance. He was looking ever so slightly smug. Still, if it was some kind of challenge, she was up for it.

She walked across the room, to where the young woman was just helping herself to a glass of champagne.

"Hello, I'm Bill" said Bill.

The woman looked her up and down and then broke into a big grin. "Ace."

They shook hands.

"So, what are you doing here?" Ace asked.

Bill nodded back at the Doctor who waved his fingers at them. "I'm his tutee, we're from the Ministry of Art and Cultural Studies."

"So you know what this is?" Ace waved her hand at the Tegenbalansie Chronometer.

"Not really. I mean, I gather this bunch of weirdo fascists made it because they objected to the peace process, but we were really visiting the museum for the historic null field engines."

* * *

The Doctor smiled at the way Bill and Ace leaned in towards each other as they stood in front of the Tegenbalansie Chronometer. He'd thought they would get along. Now he'd seen Ace, quite a few things were falling into place but Mev. Meernan's death remained something of a mystery, a detail he'd dismissed last time around without inquiring about it properly.

He glanced at the man standing next to him. Someone quiet in a cheap suit. He was looking at his datje in a rather transparent attempt to look busy. The Doctor remembered him from somewhere.

"Do I know you?" he asked the man.

The man started and almost dropped his phone. "I'm Mev. Olie. I don't think we've met!"

The Doctor leaned in closer for a good look and Mev. Olie took a slightly alarmed step backwards. Something about the movement rang bells in the Doctor's memory and inspiration struck. He snapped his fingers.

"The guide! You're the man who fainted!"

"You were here yesterday?" Mev. Olie sounded horrified.

"Yes, just passing by as it were."

"A terrible business."

"Did you know the Curator well?"

Mev. Olie shook his head. "She was quite terse with us volunteers. No time for amateurs."

"Ah! Well, I saw her online calendar, it looked quite packed. I suppose a busy woman like that might be a bit terse."

"And the online calendar's not the only one. She used to keep extra appointments in her notebook."

The Doctor's interest was suddenly peaked. "Extra appointments?"

Mev. Olie shrugged. "I don't know. She would have other stuff in her notebook in her desk. You'd see her check it sometimes when you wanted something done."

* * *

Bill and Ace were amusing themselves trying to figure out how the Tegenbalansie Chronometer worked. It was half a genuine discussion of first principles and half wild flights of fancy and daring each other to come up with even wilder explanations.

"I expect," Bill said gesturing dramatically with her champagne glass, "that you could create an anti-null field generator and then use the Chronometer to bring it into perfect synchronisation with the existing generators, negating their effect in the process."

"Exactly, young woman, that's exactly it!" Ace and Bill turned to find themselves face to face with a lugubrious looking woman, with steely grey hair that frizzed out around her head like a halo. She had a glass of champagne gripped tightly in one hand and was leaning on a stick with the other. She swayed slightly as she stood before them.

"I think you've had a bit too much to drink mate," Ace said.

"You'd be drinking if something as obscenely dangerous as this was out on public display."

"Obscenely dangerous?" Ace asked. "I've looked this up. It's a bit of dead end technology, fancily made but essentially useless."

"That's what everyone says. That's what the authorities want us to think, but as your friend says, when linked to a network of null field generators with reversed polarity it can cancel the null fields surrounding the Five Planets."

"Wait!" Bill thought for a minute. "But the null fields have shifted the orbits of the Five Planets, right? If you switched them off..." She frowned trying to think through the implications.

"Boom!" said the woman in a serious voice. "Boom!" She staggered slightly and the hand holding the champagne flailed for support.

"Time to get you home, I think." Ace said indulgently and began to turn the woman towards the door.

Bill grabbed the glass of champagne. "I'll help. What's your name?"

"Laarn, Laarn Roeharten," the woman shook her head. "I don't suppose you've heard of me."

"No, but don't take it too badly. I'm not local," Ace said.

They managed to maneuver Laarn to the entrance to the room. There, one of the museum staff, anonymous in a dark suit, helped them get her to the door.

"She used to research here, left under a bit of a cloud," the staff woman confided in Ace and Bill as they negotiated with the cloakroom and helped Laarn into a scruffy coat. "I think she lives on the East Side."

"Leave her with us," Bill said. "We'll get her home."

They got Laarn out of the museum and down its driveway to the street beyond. They stood waiting on the kerbside, while Bill fiddled with her phone to summon one of the local taxis. She risked a shy smile at Ace.

"We seem to have got ourselves rather embroiled."

"Reception was dull anyway. I'd much rather hear crazy theories about doomsday devices."

"I'm not crazy," Laarn said, enunciating each word clearly.

At that moment a car came screeching around the corner at high speed.

"Who's he showing off to?" Bill asked.

It powered towards them and the hairs on the back of Bill's neck began to rise.

"Ace?" she started to say, just as the car mounted the kerb.

Almost without thinking, Bill hooked one arm under Laarn's and stepped smartly backwards. Ace had clearly had the same thought. They lifted the woman out of the way and the car sped onwards.

"Monocle guy. Did you see monocle guy in the back of that car?" Ace asked angrily.

"Monocle guy?"

"He was at the reception, lurking around in the background."

"Mev. Ijkstron, head of something called New Balance. Did you get a registration plate?"

"There wasn't one."

"Do you think someone just deliberately tried to kill us?"

"I think someone just tried to kill Laarn here."

They exchanged glances.

"Come on Laarn, let's get you home and you can tell us all about your theories," Bill said.

* * *

Irna and the Doctor were squashed into a tiny storage space in the depths of the museum. Irna had been part of the team that refurbished the museum's electronics years earlier and she had known where she could splice into the video feeds from the exhibition space. She wasn't thrilled to have the Doctor helping her out with the heist, and definitely didn't like the way he and his associate had an agenda of their own. They communicated in meaningful glances and half finished trains of speculation that she couldn't quite interpret. Still, it turned out the Doctor was good with computers, possibly even better than she was. She had a nasty feeling that she was rapidly becoming redundant to the operation and she would need to do something about that. She'd asked quietly among some of the other bounty hunters. None of them had ever heard of either the Doctor or Ace.

She temporarily dismissed the thought and watched the footage as Ace moved across the room towards the Tegenbalansie Chronometer and back several times. The randomly placed sequins on her jacket sparkled. Irna peered at the results coming through from the image recognition algorithms.

The theory was sound but it wasn't a technique she had tried before. The algorithm had well known defeaters - patterns of random pixels that would cause it to ignore a person in a particular place in an image. The problem was that this particular system had safeguards in place to detect someone inserting pixel defeaters directly into the feed and, of course, that they needed to work with moving images. The plan, therefore, was to construct a real-time non-virtual defeater. Someone of a particular known shape, moving on a known path, with the defeating pattern sewn into their clothing.

"It lost her a couple of times," Irna said looking at the feed, "but then it picks her up again."

The Doctor nodded. "We've got enough data though. You've got a copy of the algorithm. We can reconstruct the settings and then run some variants of Ace's movements until we find the exact path."

Irna snorted. "You'll need a vast amount of computing power to manage that."

The Doctor smiled mysteriously to himself, "Funnily enough, I have a box which can help with that."

* * *

"You heard about the museum curator right?" Bill asked. She and Ace had retired to a local bar. Laarn had passed out in the taxi and they'd not been able to get any more useful information out of her. They had left her sleeping it off.

"I've heard some, but fill me in?"

"OK, so the curator of that exhibit for the Tegenbalansie Chronometer. She was murdered last night. Today someone attached a security guy updating the system. Now, at the grand opening, someone tries to kill Laarn. Coincidence or what?"

"So you think it all has something to do with the Chronometer then."

"Yeah, Someone must be trying to steal it. Do you think they might be murdering people?"

"I'm not sure how killing Laarn helps you steal the Chronometer. Who did you say you were again?"

"Me and the Doctor? Ministry of Art and Cultural Studies."

Bill was surprised to see Ace's eyes narrow. "You and the Doctor?"

"Yeah, my tutor."

"Let me just check this. The Doctor, Scottish bloke, fond of question marks, owns a police box?"

Bill paused in turn. "Well, no question marks."

Ace blinked. "But he does have a time machine."

"Umm... yes?"

"Gordon Bennett! I need another drink. Have you got any idea which one he is? Mine's number seven."

"Yours?"

"Yeah, I mentioned the Professor right? I call him that to annoy him. Go on, what number's yours."

"Thirteen I gather, at least Nardole says Thirteen. The Doctor disagrees."

"Seriously? Typical, I wonder if he lost count or he's hiding something?"

"Possibly both?" Bill hazarded.

They ordered more drinks in celebration and toasted the Doctor in all his incarnations.

"So basically," Ace said, "you're investigating and just pretending to be Art and Cultural Studies."

"Pretty much."

Ace grinned, "Well so are me and the Professor. But we're tackling this from the other end."

"What do you mean?"

"OK, so you've got a murder that is probably linked to an attempted theft of the Chronometer right?"

"Right."

"Well, we're planning a heist to try to find out who wants the thing."

"You're planning a heist?"

Ace nodded and grinned over the top of her vodka and coke.

"And the Doctor, my Doctor, probably knows all this."

"Almost certainly, it's totally the Doctor to know everything but not let on. Whereas mine, he's here for the first time around. Oh my God, he's genuinely in the dark for once. This is going to be epic."

"So, do you reckon we should share notes? Or will that break the time stream or something."

"I reckon we should compare notes and then decide how much is safe for the Doctor, either of them, to know."

* * *

"Did you know there's a heist competition thing going on to steal the Tegenbalansie Chronometer?" Bill perched on the edge of Mev. Meernan's desk and tried to effect a casual tone. The Doctor was rifling through the desk drawers in search of a mysterious `paper diary'.

The Doctor smiled one of his secret smiles, "I may have had a suspicion. Do you have details?"

Bill narrowed her eyes at him. "Ace and I compared notes, so I imagine you know as much as I do."

His grin widened. "Ah! I wondered if the two of you would figure it out."

Bill flicked a paper clip at him, just so he knew she thought he was being annoying.

"OK, so it was announced the day before yesterday and almost immediately the curator was murdered! Don't you think that is too much of a coincidence? It must be one of the potential thieves right. I mean we thought it was probably a thief, but this pretty much confirms it."

"Except the curator had been dead several hours when we found her. She was killed some time the day before the heist announcement."

Bill's hearts sank. "Bother! I really thought I was onto something there."

"I think you are onto something. I'm sure there's a connection. We just don't know what it is yet. Ah ha!"

He'd been feeling about at the back of a drawer and managed to pull out a small notebook. Bill came around the table to peer over his shoulder as he flicked through the pages. It wasn't so much a diary as a mixture of to-do lists, notes to self, and idle doodles. Each page was dated. The Doctor flicked forward until they reached the last annotated page - the day before yesterday.

There were a scrawl of notes, mostly memos to self about the exhibition, several of which were neatly crossed off. Then at the bottom of the page, `3pm Meet Roeharten'. Bill recognised the name from the buzzer outside Laarn's flat.

"Oh God!" Bill said, "but Laarn's harmless!"

"Who, exactly, is Laarn?" The Doctor asked.

"You don't know?"

"Assume Ace was extremely careful about what she told me." The Doctor looked mildly taken aback. "Come to think about it she was positively smug, I just didn't realise at the time that it meant anything."

"You can be pretty smug yourself sometimes."

"Ah, but I have age and wisdom to justify it. Don't look at me like that!"

* * *

It was dark by the time they got to Laarn's house. They'd had to walk most of the way. The city had unaccountably descended into gridlock and the underground train system didn't reach out this far.

"This amount of traffic can't be normal," Bill said, peering over the balcony of Laarn's high rise at the nose-to-tail cars on the street below.

"It's not. Did you notice that none of the traffic signals are working?"

"Someone has switched them all off? Oh! I bet a route from the museum to some secret rendezvous type thing is still open."

"I imagine so."

"Was it you?"

"No, one of the other competitors. Everything is getting a little close to the wire here."

"But it all ends up OK, right?"

The Doctor tapped the side of his nose. "Spoilers," he said, but he smiled.

Laarn opened the door. She was no longer wearing a smart suit, instead dressed down in trainers, jeans and a checked shirt. She looked happier and more natural.

"Bill isn't it?" she asked.

"Yeah, I helped get you home last night."

"Thanks! It's been a rough week. I let myself go a bit."

"So I imagine," The Doctor pushed unheedingly past Laarn into the small flat beyond.

"What can I do to help you?"

"Well," the Doctor turned around, "you can start by explaining why you murdered Mev. Meernan."

Laarn seemed to deflate like a balloon. She staggered and Bill caught her and helped her sit in a chair. Bill glared at the Doctor.

"It was you, wasn't it?" he asked a little more gently.

Laarn nodded, "I didn't intend to."

"No, I rather thought you hadn't."

"Was it to do with the Tegenbalansie Chronometer? Last night you were saying how it could be used to break the null fields," Bill asked.

Laarn nodded. "I studied it when I was an academic. I had special access from the Geldmensen family. It's absolutely clear from their records what it is and how it is to be used. That's one of the reasons they guard it so well."

"So the family know how dangerous it is to let out," Bill said.

Laarn shook her head. "They seemed to think it was a quaint family tradition. No one had really worked through the science in the records before I got there."

"But you told them, didn't you?" The Doctor asked.

"I told pretty much everyone prepared to listen, but hardly anyone was. I was discredited as an academic. The only people prepared to listen to me were the New Balance lot. I did some digging, realised they wanted to recreate the technology and refused to have anything to do with it. That's when things got worse - all my data and notes were stolen and then I lost my job. They may seem like crackpots but New Balance have friends in high places."

"New Balance lot? Wait a minute? The guy with the monocle!"

"Yes, Mev. Ijkstron. I don't think he's ever forgiven me for turning him down."

"You know he tried to run you over last night?"

"Did he? I don't remember that. I don't remember much really. Perhaps it would have been better if he had succeeded," she shook her head.

"Why did you kill Meernan."

"I'd arranged to meet her to try to persuade her to call off the exhibition. I didn't really think she'd believe me, but I had to do something. The Chronometer is just so vulnerable out in the open like that and it was the only part of the technology I'd not had time to properly study before everything went wrong - so if someone had my notes they still wouldn't be able to recreate the anti-null field without the Chronometer itself."

"Go on," the Doctor urged.

"Well, while we were talking, she criticised one of my side theories - something I'd considered and then abandoned, certainly nothing I'd ever tried to publish."

"So she must have seen your stolen notes!" Bill said.

Laarn nodded, "And you see, I'm sure it was New Balance who arranged the theft of my notes, which meant that New Balance were probably behind the exhibition, which meant..."

"Which meant Meernan was working for New Balance."

"I'm afraid I just lost it at that point. I was carrying my walking stick and I just swung it at her. She fell and hit her head on the barrier around the exhibit. I don't know which blow killed her but she wasn't breathing. I just panicked, closed the curtains and ran..."

"But why were you there again last night?"

"I was trying to think what I could do. How could I alert someone without, you know, exposing myself. I didn't think I could take being branded a murderer as well as a crackpot. I know that sounds selfish. But I mean, no one was going to take me any more seriously just because I'd killed someone. I don't know." Laarn wrung her hands.

Bill looked over at the Doctor. "Ace seemed to think that the man with the monocle was funding the heist attempt. We know they had something to do with setting up the exhibition. So that means New Balance are all set to steal the Chronometer and the deadline is tonight."

Laarn looked up. "Heist attempt? Tonight?"

"Yeah, we think so?" Bill looked at the Doctor again, but he was maintaining a poker face.

"I have to stop it. I have to go!" Laarn was standing up.

"No wait! Traffic is gridlocked out there, you'll never make it!!"

"I have to try."

Laarn pushed past Bill who made a grab for her, but the woman was surprisingly quick on her feet, despite her limp. Laarn grabbed her stick from the hallway and slammed the door shut behind her. As Bill and the Doctor exited the apartment, Laarn was running down the long staircase outside, leaning on the railing as she went. Bill and the Doctor followed. As soon as Laarn reached street level she waved her datje at a rack of bicycles set up by the road, grabbed one and cycled off.

Bill cursed. The Doctor had rigged up her phone with various functions that the local datjes had, but she was pretty sure bicycle ride shares were not among them

"A bicycle, now why didn't I think of bicycles!" said the Doctor with a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

Bill looked at the row of bicycles, each with an electronic lock.

"You're not going to steal us bicycles are you?"

The Doctor grinned and produced the sonic screwdriver with a flourish.

* * *

The museum was dark except for low security lighting. It wasn't really enough to see much by, but it provided enough for the image enhancements in Ace's goggles to let her move freely and with confidence.

"I'm in the main exhibit hall," she said quietly into her throat mike once the Tegenbalansie Chronometer was in sight.

"Very good," The Doctor's burr sounded in her ear. "We are deactivating the light cage now!"

"I just hope that thumb print signal you intercepted was the right one."

"Of course it was, don't be such a worry wort."

Ace smiled to herself and then began to traverse the floor following the pattern she had memorised. The sequins on her jacket sparkled in the low lighting, a few random pixels, just enough to confuse the algorithms. Her heart was beating fast in her chest. It was weird to simply have to trust that some magic flaw deep inside a computer was rendering her invisible. She reached the Chronometer.

"Well here goes nothing," Ace took a deep breath and swiped it off the stand.

She stood motionless for a moment, half expecting alarms to sound and the security doors to begin to close, but nothing happened.

"I've got it, Doctor!" she said.

"Excellent, Irna is waiting for you at the front with the escape vehicle."

Ace wrapped the Chronometer in a bag and tucked it into the bottom of her already heavy backpack. Then she headed for the exit.

As she left the building, Ace could see Irna standing by a hefty looking motorcycle parked up in the wide sweep of the museum's ornamental driveway. She looked very conspicuous and Ace wondered briefly where all their competitors were.

"Quick, time for our getaway!" she said as she hurried towards Irna.

"Time for mine."

Ace had a moment to blink as Irna drew a gun and shot her squarely in the chest.


	3. Chapter Three

The Doctor had chosen to steal a tandem. _Of course_ the Doctor had chosen to steal a tandem. Bill had to struggle to peer around him as they cycled through the streets, though possibly that was a good thing since she couldn't see the obstacles ahead as they mounted pavements, slipped between stationary vehicles and, at one point, went down a flight of steps ("taking a short cut" the Doctor explained).

They had almost caught up with Laarn, whose bike appeared to have some kind of powered assistance, when the museum came in sight at the end of the road. That was when Bill heard the shot. She looked around the Doctor again and cried out as she saw Ace falling to the ground. The woman standing in front of Ace rolled her over, rummaged in her back pack and then took off on a motorcycle towards the back entrance to the Museum grounds. Laarn shouted in anger as she rode up on her own bicycle. Bill saw her glance furiously around herself and then she picked up a rock from an ornamental display in the courtyard and threw it at the museum's glass doors. The doors shattered. Alarms immediately sounded. The Doctor swerved to a sudden halt and Bill realised that a neat row of spikes had popped up across the Museum gateway.

An explosive popping sound told her that the motorcycle had lost its tyres as it had tried to leave by the back gate. Laarn shouted in triumph and began hobbling towards the woman who had shot Ace, who promptly abandoned her motorcycle and set off on foot.

Bill decided to ignore them for the moment and rushed to where Ace lay on the ground. Just as she reached her, Ace sat up coughing.

"Gordon Bennett. Bullets don't half hurt at close range!" She rubbed at her chest.

"Ace! You're alive!"

"Bullet proof vest. The Professor was very insistent. Just as well, I mean I knew Irna might double-cross me, didn't expect it to be violent."

Ace stood up and pulled off her backpack, looking inside.

"I think she made off with the Chronometer," Bill said.

Ace pulled a bundle out of the backpack and made a face. "I reckon she did and all, and I'd so carefully put this decoy on top of it."

"Ah!" said the Doctor, plucking the decoy out of her hands. "I remember this."

"You must be Bill's Doc," Ace said.

"I am indeed, as you say, Bill's Doc," he made a face as he pronounced the contraction of Doctor.

"Scottish again then."

"Don't push your luck."

"Decoy?" Bill asked.

"The Doctor has a decoy Chronometer. It turned up the same time the invite to the heist did."

Bill caught the Doctor's expression. "Wait, Doctor? Did you send the decoy?"

He looked affronted. "Well, someone must have. I reasoned it might as well be me. I might have put in a note about the advisability of bullet proof vests while I was about it. This was a few regenerations back, mind. I'd almost forgotten about it all."

"Typical," Ace muttered, "but thanks, I suppose."

"We'd better catch up with Laarn," Bill said.

"You go. Ace and I need to take different routes," the Doctor said.

Bill looked between them. Ace looked as confused as she did, but shrugged and jerked her head in the direction of the back gate. "You'd better hurry, but take this," she pulled off an earpiece and throat mike she was wearing. "You'll be able to keep my Doctor updated on what is happening, just say you're a mate of mine."

* * *

Ace watched Bill leave and then looked back at the Doctor.

"So what now?"

"Well, you need to meet up with my younger self. As for me. Well I know where I wasn't. You didn't tell me much so I'm going to have to guess where I was."

"Serves you right. All those times you kept me in the dark."

"Ah, well. I felt it was for the best at the time."

Ace nodded, feeling suddenly awkward. "Look after yourself, OK?"

His smile was beautiful and fond. "You too."

Impulsively she hugged him, feeling him stiffen up in her arms. He made a vague flapping gesture which might have been intended as a reciprocal hug. Then Ace turned and ran after the others.

* * *

Laarn could move pretty fast with her stick, but it wasn't a run by any stretch of the imagination. Irna disappeared into the entrance of a transit station. She waved her datje at the barriers and the gates opened. 

Meanwhile Bill struggled to fit the earpiece and throat mike Ace had given her while closing the distance on the two figures.

"Hello? Hello?" she said once she thought she had it in place.

"Who is this?" asked a Scottish voice.

"Friend of Ace's. I'm chasing the Chronometer. I think we're about to go underground so you'll probably lose me for a bit."

"Where's Ace?" there was a note of worry in the voice.

"She's fine. I'm no sure where she's headed, but she's fine. I'm at the station now. I'll get back in touch once we arrive somewhere."

Bill caught up with Laarn as they ran down long steps that emptied out onto a platform. A train was standing there and its doors had just started to close. Bill grabbed Laarn's hand and the two of them slipped into the nearest carriage. The doors stopped moving briefly, detecting their presence, and then closed shut behind them. The train began to pull away.

Bill looked up and down the carriage. There was no sign of Irna.

"She went in up that end," Laarn pointed.

It was late at night, but there were still plenty of people in the carriages, many muttering about the terrible gridlock on the roads. Bill and Laarn weaved their way along from carriage to carriage.

"You should go ahead if she leaves the train," Laarn said.

Bill felt herself pull a face, but couldn't deny the sense of the suggestion.

Three carriages down and the train pulled into another station.

"Better check to see if she gets off," Bill said.

They stepped out of the doors and, indeed, Irna exited a carriage further down and set off at a run again, through an automated exit and out into the city beyond.

"That's the Shambles! She'll be hard to follow there. You had better hurry," Laarn muttered.

As soon as she left the station, Bill saw what Laarn meant. She stood in a narrow street that twisted and turned. Irna was nowhere to be see. Bill began to jog down the street, looking left and right down each street that they went past.

* * *

Ace met her Doctor two blocks from the museum, where he was waiting on a motorbike with several screens strapped to the handle bars.

"Irna shot me," she said.

The Doctor nodded. "It was a risk. I was... " he started to say something and then changed his mind. "Still all's well between cup and lip."

Ace scoffed. "Yes. Lucky you got that tip off about a bullet proof vest. Any idea where it came from yet?"

"Some," the Doctor said in a slightly distracted tone as he flipped switches on the front of the motorbike. "Your friend has Irna in view, or she did. We need to catch up with them. Who is she by the way?"

"Just a friend."

The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing important." Ace said as blandly as she could as she climbed onto the back of the motorbike. "Can the Chronometer really cancel out the null fields?"

"I'm pretty sure it can. At least assuming the decoy we have is more or less accurate. The Chronometer must act as the coordinating component of a machine that can generate a reverse null field, effectively canceling out the planet wide ones. It would have to be a pretty big machine and placed quite carefully to work, I don't know where someone could be hiding it."

There was a sound of an explosion from somewhere in the direction of the museum. "What was that?" Ace asked.

"Probably another team going in after the Chronometer."

The Doctor flicked several switches on the front of the motorbike and a tracker popped up overlaid on a map of the city. "Ah ha! Looks like your friend has left the transit system. Let's find out where she's going."

He gunned the engine and they set off.

* * *

Bill stopped in a small square surrounded by narrow alleys and waited for Laarn to catch up. "This is hopeless. She could be anywhere."

Laarn nodded despondently. "She'll take the Chronometer to the New Balance and then, well who knows what will happen."

"They wouldn't really use it would they?"

"I think they would. I think they believe the planets will just gently nudge back into alignment over years in the same way that they gradually nudged out as the null fields were deployed."

"But it won't work like that will it? Because the null field use grew slowly and this machine the Chronometer controls will cancel them all at once, right?"

"Pretty much, at least as far as I understood the design."

There was a sudden loud bang, as if someone had fired a gun. Without thinking Bill raced down one of the side alleys in the direction of the sound. She turned a corner and found Irna lying on the ground, blood was already pooling around the body. She knelt down next to the woman.

"Don't worry, we'll get an ambulance. Laarn! Phone an ambulance"

Irna made a grating chuckling sound. "Won't get here in the gridlock."

Bill summoned her basic first aid knowledge to the fore front of her mind. She pulled off her jacket and padded it up to press down on Irna's wounds.

"It was Algor, should have guessed he'd plant a bug on me somewhere."

"So he's on the way to the rendezvous to hand over the Tegenbalansie Chronometer?"

Irna's eyes fluttered. "You know about the Chronometer?"

Bill heard the asymmetric of Laarn's footsteps approaching. She was speaking to someone on her datje, calling in the injury.

"I know Ace and the Doctor. So yeah, I know about the Chronometer."

"Ask her where the rendezvous is," the voice of Ace's Doctor sounded in Bill's ear. "The instructions said to call as soon as you had the Chronometer and you'd get a location."

"Where's the rendezvous?" Bill asked.

"The rendezvous is at that new Roosteen building. If you hurry you should get there about the same time as Algor. Give him hell for me."

"What about you?"

"First responders are on their way. Say they'll be here in about 10 minutes," Laarn said. "Gridlock's clearing up.

Irna coughed again. "You'll need this," she produced a small compact looking pistol from a holster on her leg. Bill recoiled.

"No way."

"These people aren't playing games. Take it!"

"I'll take it!" Laarn accepted the gun.

"Laarn! No!"

"Are you going to argue with me or are we going to head for the Roosteen building?"

Bill looked desperately at the prone figure of Irna.

"Go!" the woman said, clutching at the padding Bill had put over her wounds.

"Doctor, Ace. Did you hear all that?" Bill asked.

"Yes, we did. We're on the way to the Roosteen building!" the Doctor said.

"You'll need a pass to get in," Irna said. I've got it on my datje, it was sent to me when I called in that I had the Chronometer. She handed a datje over to Bill. "Now go!"

Reluctantly Bill allowed Laarn to pull her away.

* * *

The Roosteen building was a tall skyscraper in the brick and stone style, though the stone had an oddly pinkish colouration. It was situated conveniently close to another transit station. Elaborate carvings of animals climbed up its sides and it widened out to a kind of platform at the top. Bill was slightly taken aback.

"This is all a bit baroque, isn't it?"

"The Balance movement was all about baroque. Didn't you notice the tooling on the Chronometer. If I'm right the device the Chronometer is supposed to control will be on the top floor of the building. That's will be why that platform up there is so large."

Bill took a deep breath and fished Irna's datje out of her pocket. "Doctor, Ace? We're about to go in."

"Be careful. We're almost there but things could turn nasty," the Doctor said. "You should wait."

"Not sure we've got time to wait," Bill said.

Bill and Laarn marched up to the front doors. Bill waved the datje in front of a reader and the doors swung open.

"Mev. Ijkstron is waiting in the meeting hall," said a disembodied voice.

The meeting hall turned out to be a lavish ballroom affair just opposite them on the ground floor.

Bill and Laarn crossed the hallway and entered the large double doors. Inside were Mev. Ijkstron complete with tailored suit and a monocle and a thick set rough looking man with a scar down one side of his face. He was holding the Tegenbalansie Chronometer.

"Stop right there!" Laarn pulled out Irna's gun.

"Laarn, this is not the way," Bill protested.

Laarn scowled limping forwards towards the two frozen men. "This is the only way. The Tegenbalansie Chronometer can not be used. Hand it back to me."

Mev. Ijkstron raised one eyebrow and carefully took the Chronometer out of the other man's hands. "Oh dear! And after Algor here has gone to so much trouble to bring it to me. I really don't think I should just hand it over to... who are you again?"

"You know perfectly well who I am, and I know what you intend to do with the Chronometer. It can not be allowed!"

"I see, and presumably if I do not hand the Chronometer over you will shoot me."

"Yes," even Bill could detect the waver in Laarn's voice.

"Really, you, a disgraced academic are prepared to shoot me the innocent collector of priceless pieces of Aartjean relics."

Ijkstron began to move towards Laarn.

"You're hardly innocent. You've just funded a massive heist just to get hold of the thing." Bill said nervously, glancing between the two of them as Ijkstron closed the gap.

He glanced in her direction with a graceful nod of the head. "Touché my dear, but that hardly justifies my murder."

"Step closer and I really will shoot!" Laarn said.

"If I don't step closer, I can't give you the Chronometer can I?" He took a step closer.

"You can give it to me," Bill said. "While Laarn keeps you covered."

"But I don't even know who you are." He took another step towards Laarn. He now stood less than a foot from the barrel of the gun. "What little I do know about Mev. Roeharten here is that she is not, by nature, a violent person."

He took another step forward. He began to hold out the Chronometer. Laarn took one hand off the barrel of the gun to accept it, at which point Ijkstron suddenly tucked the Chronometer under one arm and with surprising dexterity twisted the gun out of Laarn's hands and took two smart steps backwards, swinging the gun so he covered them all.

"Mev. Roeharten, I would like you step in the elevator. Your expertise may prove useful. You two can consider yourselves free to go, and I suggest you do so immediately." Ijkstron waved his gun imperiously.

Bill watched as Laarn, stiff-backed and dignified walked across the room and into the elevators at the far side. Ijkstron walked in after her. The lift doors closed. Bill ran towards them and started punching buttons to summon a second lift.

"Now, this has really got terribly messy," Algor said behind her.

She turned to see he was pointing a gun at her.

"Killing me isn't going to achieve anything," she said anxiously.

"It eliminates a witness and I'm in favour of that."

At that moment, somewhere, there was a large explosion. Smoke filled the air and the lights went out. Bill ducked and rolled to one side. A shot rang out. She heard running feet. A torch bobbed through the darkness.

"Bill are you all right?" It was Ace's voice.

"I'm here. Ijkstron's got Laarn and Algor's around somewhere."

"Toe rags! Come on."

The lights suddenly came back on. "Emergency generator," Ace muttered.

Bill staggered to her feet. "What just happened?"

"I set off some Nitro 9 because the doors wouldn't open. Must have tripped a fuse somewhere."

"We need to stop Ijkstron. I think they went up to the top floor."

"The Doctor said to get everyone out. I think he has a plan."

"Well, we're going to have to rescue Laarn. I mean, she's admitted to killing the curator, but even so."

Ace nodded. "Agreed. Can you let the Doctor know?"

At that moment Bill realised she was hearing nothing except static in her ears. She pulled out the earpiece. "I think it broke when I ducked."

"Oh well. He can look after himself."

They took a lift to the top floor. It was a slow journey up the outside of the building. Bill guessed there must be quicker service lifts somewhere - in fact she thought she might have seen them in the entrance hall and chafed that she hadn't thought of that earlier. They might have been able to get to the top before Ijkstron.

The lift eventually reached the top and opened into a darkened corridor lit only by fake candles mounted in sconces along the walls. Up ahead of them Ijkstron was walking steadily down the corridor flanked by hooded figures. Laarn walked in front of him. She was leaning heavily on her stick and going much slower than usual. Bill guessed she was stalling for time. As the lift doors opened, Bill thought she saw a brief flurry of movement. Briefly the figures collided with each other and then moved apart once more, continuing to move in a loose circle around Ijkstron and Laarn. Bill thought she saw a flash of one of the robed attendants disappearing down a side corridor.

Ace and Bill raced down the corridor. It opened out into the platform that had been styled as a roof garden. Swooping curved metal girders arched overhead. Ijkstron took up a position in front of what looked like a high altar, but Bill could see the dials and wiring within it. It must have been the control centre for the Tegenbalansie Device the Chronometer was supposed to control. Ijkstron slotted the Chronometer into place. Laarn cried out and threw herself at him, but two attendants grabbed her and pulled her away. Ijkstron twisted a dial. The hands of the Chronometer began turn, counting backwards. The curved girders began to move in great arcs making Bill feel like she stood in the centre of some vast clockwork machine. She began to run towards where the Chronometer stood fixed in place, still counting down.

Then there was a sudden judder. One of the giant curved girders began to fall, a graceful sideways motion.

"What is happening?" Ijkstron cried out in alarm.

"Oh God! The null devices are stopping," Ace whispered.

"I don't think so. I mean I don't understand much but the effect should start from the outer edges and move in, not from here and move out." The floor shook and Bill found herself clutching Ace or support. "Don't quote me on that though."

"If it isn't the null field generators stopping then what is it?"

"Are you sure Irna took the real Tegenbalansie Chronometer not the decoy?"

"Yes, absolutely the fake one is still here in my bag." Ace hefted her backpack and then stopped. "I don't believe it. My bag is too light. Someone's swiped the fake."

"What? When?"

"The Doctor I bet. I'll kill him when I get my hands on him."

"That scuffle in the corridor when we got up here. Could that have been..."

Ace slapped her forehead. "He's switched the things somehow. That's why he said to get everyone out! But of course he couldn't tell me what was actually happening."

There was a crash as a girder fell through the floor. The hooded figures around Ijkstron began to back away in panic. Laarn was left unrestrained and unguarded.

"Laarn! Quickly!" Bill beckoned at Laarn and, when she didn't move, began to run towards her with Ace at her heels.

Laarn staggered forwards and gripped hold of the Chronometer, fiddling with the dials. Ijkstron grabbed hold of her in turn and the two wrestled over the device. The floor began to tilt. Bill felt her feet beginning to slide and she had to slow down to keep her balance. There was a cry of triumph and Laarn pulled the Chronometer out of its stand. With a guttural cry Ijkstron launched himself at her. The two of them staggered, slipped and then slid to the edge of the platform.

Bill felt Ace grab her and clip something around her waist. To her surprise she saw Ace had pulled climbing gear out of her backpack and had anchored herself to an ornamental pillar. Bill launched herself forwards, sliding down the sloping floor to where the two figures struggled at the barrier that surrounded the rooftop.

Ijkstron hit Laarn viciously and Laarn staggered backwards and tumbled over the barrier, just as Bill reached her and grabbed hold, getting a grip in the folds of her shirt. Ijkstron grinned viciously, placed the Chronometer by the barrier, picked up Laarn's fallen cane and raised it to bring it down on Bill's hands. At that moment the whole building shuddered and lurched sideways. Ijkstron staggered and then, with a cry, went over the edge.

Bill hauled desperately on Laarn, managing somehow to get a grip under her arms and pull her back onto the now dangerously leaning rooftop platform. The two of them began to haul themselves towards Ace, holding onto the rope and walking up the slope.

"Out now?" Bill gasped once she her.

Ace gripped her hand. "Doesn't look good Bill."

Bill looked around. A chasm had opened up between them and the lifts - even assuming the lifts were still working. The vast girders were slowly crashing down upon them. Bill squeezed back suddenly frozen trying to think how they would get out of this.

"Oh, I don't know. Never give up hope they say!" It was the Doctor's, Bill's Doctor's, pronounced Scottish tones. Amplified somehow.

Bill looked up with a flood of relief to see a police helicopter hovering overhead with the Doctor leaning out of it and a rope ladder dangling down.

"Well don't stand there gawping," said the Doctor. "Get up here all of you."

* * *

"I was getting worried about you," the Doctor confessed as Ace let herself into the Tardis.

"And so you should be, you should have told me you were going to switch the Chronometers."

"It was a spur of the moment thing. I didn't think there was time for explanations."

Ace leaned nonchalantly against the console. "All's well that ends well. I got a ride out in a police helicopter. Apparently they had a tip off about where the Chronometer would be."

"I do hope they didn't also get a tip off about the Tardis."

"Probably not. Anyway they were busy arresting people left right and centre. Looks like Irna, Algor and a woman called Laarn are all going to stand trial." Ace fiddled with one of the controls on the console.

"Who could have tipped them off though?"

"Who indeed?" Ace attempted to raise an eyebrow.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "You still haven't told me what you're not telling me."

"No, I haven't have I?"

They held each others eyes for a moment.

"Oh very well! Have it your own way. Where shall we go now?"

* * *

"Shame about the Chronometer," Bill said, seated on the steps that led up to the Tardis' mezzanine. "It was a beautiful object."

"It was, yes, but very dangerous. Not something the Aartjeans were ready for."

"You can't stop technological advance though. You said yourself that ignorance rarely pays. Technological advance is difficult and dangerous to suppress, you said. So what happens if someone else develops the technology?"

"I can't stop the advance no, but this gives the Five Planets time. Gives them time to undo the effect of the null field generators properly and move the planets back into their true alignment."

"Won't that let them start up the war again?"

"I don't think so. A few New Balance separatists aside, most Aartjeans have grown up in times of peace and prefer it that way."

Bill nodded. "So what did you do with the Chronometer?"

"Left hand corridor, third door along, you'll find it on a plinth."

"A plinth?"

"Well it is a very decorative object."


End file.
